Brunch Club: Yauatcha, W1

For part two of our festive Brunch Club gathering on Sunday 3rd December 2017, we headed to Yauatcha, 15-17 Broadwick St, Soho, London, W1F 0DL. As we were told we could only have the table for 1.5 hours at our first venue, we decided to walk here afterwards for our traditional ‘brunch pudding’ as Yauatcha are well known for their desserts and cakes, in addition to their dreamy dim sum menu.

INITIAL BEVERAGES

Eleanor’s Tokyo cooler at Yauatcha

Lori: The tea menu here is an absolute delight, and split into four categories: Light, Floral, Complex, and Robust. I like a complex tea and so went for a pot of the High Mountain Oolong which was utterly delicious and actually would have been fine between two as it was a big pot!Ed: Large tea caddies lined the walls! I was in heaven! I had a Classical Beauty Blue Tea, which was delicious.Eleanor: I’m not a tea drinker (GASP!) so I had a Tokyo cooler which was lemongrass, raspberry, elderflower, peach and guava. It was delicious but at £7 plus service, too much.Lou: I was incredibly excited to see a white tea on the menu (Peony) and drank almost all of the generously large Japanese pot as it stayed incredibly hot.

WHAT WE HAD

Lori with her Raspberry Delice at Yauatcha

Lori: I chose the utterly beautiful Raspberry Delice, which contained a chocolate mousse with a lychee filling yet looked like a red rose made of velvet and so earned me a flurry of excited messages from friends when I posted a photo on Instagram stories. It was completely delicious!Ed: I went for the Pecan Coffee Delice, which was a delicious mixture of coffee, nutty and creamy flavours. What an absolute treat! I bought some macarons at the end of the meal to take home to the husband, we had Mulled Wine, Gingerbread, and Jaffa Cake and they were all delicious!Eleanor: My first choice was the Tropical Dome – coconut daquoise, passion fruit, pineapple with coconut ice-cream on the side, delicious and refreshing. I also shared the Salted Caramel Delice which was right up my street – banana, peanut, caramel all together. Yum. I also had a spiced pumpkin macaron – there was no taste of pumpkin or spice, and the chocolate ganache was somewhat overwhelming with the delicate meringue, not great.Lou: I plumped for the Mandarin and Chocolate Tart – pastry, chocolate cremosa, mandarin jelly, macadamia nut and chocolate slices, served with a mandarin sorbet which made my tastebuds tingle. It was like a fancy jaffa cake! I also shared the Salted Caramel Delice with Eleanor, which was perfectly balanced peanut and caramel with a sweet mousse with banana sorbet. It was probably a little too sweet for me (and I didn’t enjoy the sorbet) but the Delice was a delight! I rounded off with a Mulled Wine macaron which was spiced beautifully and had the most delicious chocolate ganache finished.

The Salted Caramel Delice that Eleanor and Lou shared at Yauatcha

WHAT DID WE CHAT ABOUT?

Lori: Lou gave us tiny personalised gifts – delightful mini knitted festive jumpers to hang on our Christmas trees! This meant that we, perhaps inevitably, started talking about our plans for the festive season.Ed: Various bits of gossip I couldn’t possibly detail here. Christmas plans!Eleanor: Admiring our little jumpers from Lou, lots of Christmas chat.Lou: I craft Christmas decorations every yes and was delighted to hand over my ‘Weasley’ sweater decorations to the gang. We also chatted about why people were so rude to service staff after I witnessed a woman be horrifically rude to the host.

Brunch Club’s tea and dessert at Yauatcha, Soho

SERVICE, ATMOSPHERE, TOILET STANDARDS/QUIRKS

One of the many flavours of macaron at Yauatcha

Lori: The service here was friendly and relaxed. In contrast our visit to Sketch, we were made to feel welcome from the start and nobody cared that we were just there for tea and pudding. Our corner table had a comfy embroidered sofa and was close to the desserts, which helped with decision making. The toilets were dark and shiny – probably tricky to navigate if you’ve had something other than tea to drink!Ed: great atmosphere, we were really lucky to have a corner table, so it didn’t feel too busy at all though it was! Waiter returned several times to refresh our glasses of water. Toilets were fine, though there was an odd mirror arrangement which was so high up I could only see the top of my head (I’m 5ft11) and there was a dark semi-reflective panel opposite the sink.Eleanor: As Ed said, we had a corner table which meant it felt relaxing – I imagine a table in the centre could feel quite hectic. The staff were lovely, but it was very busy so took a while to get their attention but everything arrived promptly. The toilets were beautiful.Lou: I loved the buzzing atmosphere in the main restaurant and whilst it was busy we didn’t feel rushed or crowded.

POST-BRUNCH-PUDDING PLANS

Brunch Club selfie outside Yauatcha

Lori: I walked to Tottenham Court Road tube station with Ed, and then headed home to relax.Ed: Lovely walk back with Lori, then I was straight home to do a bit more Christmas decorating!Eleanor: I went home and had two naps.Lou: I headed home and put my Christmas tree up!

FINAL THOUGHTS

Lori: This place was an absolute delight and I highly recommend a visit! I *really* need to go back myself, for dim sum!Ed: Would love to go back from a main meal, really recommend popping in to get some macarons or other cakes for a treat to take home, the standard is incredible!Eleanor: The decor, glass windows and hectic vibe didn’t appeal to me, I don’t think I’d go back – it’s definitely treat priced. I am intrigued by the food which looked and smelled amazing.Lou: This is a must-visit spot – whether for dim sum or cake – and if you are walking by do pop in for a macaroon!

The image of Yauatcha at the top of this post is from the more extensive review over at food blog Hungry Hoss. All other images were snapped by Brunch Club members on their phones, so excuse any blurriness as we were all rather excited about eating the food.

About

Rarely Wears Lipstick is no longer being updated. It was started as a personal blog by Lori Smith in 2003, was rebranded to Rarely Wears Lipstick in 2009, and finally closed its doors in 2019.
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